Highland Council may still have to make compulsory redundancies to balance its books – despite more than 500 staff volunteering to leave the local authority.
Chief executive Steve Barron also warned yesterday that some services would “need to terminate”, although he did not specify which ones.
The council’s minority Independent-led administration is still undecided about breaking the SNP Government-imposed council tax freeze.
But it revealed it had arranged talks with Finance Minister John Swinney at which it will plead for any financial penalty for breaking the longstanding “accord” to be dropped in the event that it does increase bills.
Mr Barron confirmed that 511 staff had indicated they were willing to accept voluntary redundancy packages and that the figure was likely to rise before next week’s deadline for applications.
Council leader Margaret Davidson said later that no one wanted to see compulsory redundancies.
But she added: “In my realistic moments, I suspect we will have to, but I hope to God it’s an absolute minimum.”
Any compulsory redundancies would have to be agreed by councillors.
At a special meeting in Inverness yesterday, local authority finance director Derek Yule said a £38million budget gap remained, with a month left to find the necessary savings to balance the books for 2016-17.
The council is dealing with a 4% cut in its annual Scottish Government grant.
The cost of redundancy packages is, so far, estimated to be about £14.5million and would save £12million a year. It would be funded from the council’s emergency reserves.
Opposition groups accused the Independents of not including them in the budget process and canceling briefings, but administration councillors retaliated by claiming the opposition had failed to contribute anything but would be briefed on the draft budget in the next few days.
The figures must be agreed at a meeting on February 25.
The opposition SNP group largely kept its powder dry yesterday.
Other councillors united to condemn Scottish Government “hypocrisy”, claiming the party fighting for full fiscal responsibility had “centralised” power in Edinburgh and “neutered” local authority’s with the council tax freeze.
Liberal Democrat group leader Alasdair Christie said the SNP had “persecuted Highland people”.
He told colleagues: “This government ties us up, and beats us up.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have fully funded the tax freeze. Independent research from the Scottish Parliament’s information service found that, compared to inflation, we have over-funded the tax freeze by £165million since 2008.
“We have made £70million available to continue the freeze for a ninth consecutive year. If continued, it will have saved the average Band D household around £1,550 over the period of the freeze.”
He added: “We have delivered local government budgets through fair settlements and we have removed ring-fencing of council budgets.
“Our Community Empowerment Act 2015 requires local public services to work together and with local communities through community planning to deliver improvements specifically on local priorities.”
A survey of the council’s 2,300-strong “citizens’ panel” resulted in 61% support for a 5% council tax rise in Highland.
Mrs Davidson said the feedback was “valuable” and would be considered in shaping the budget.
Two Lochaber councillors, Andrew Baxter and Ben Thompson, opted to participate in yesterday’s Inverness council meeting via videolink from Fort William as a money-saving gesture.